Anyone know what the Coolant Capacity is on an 03 4.6 2v? Its 101k now, time to flush the brown **** out of the system.

 

2003 4.6L Capacities/Cooling

Standard Cooling = 25 qrts.

W/aux cooling = 27.2 qrts.

 

Hey lightningx54, I just looked this up for someone else. Looks like the capacities may be wrong from other resources. Not sure why they differ. (?) The 2002 -03 are the same. Reference the chart at the bottom for your Capacities. -

Resource #1 -



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Resource #2 -



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Resource #3 (The one that doesn't lie. Ford Service. ) ~

 

thank you, much appreciated

 

That's funny - the 2003 owner's manual says the 4.6 holds 20.6 quarts.

 

3 gallons.

I like to do Gallon of Gold Antifreeze, and two gallons (or close to two gallons) of distilled water. Down in the south we dont need the low double digit freeze protection, and i like the added heat carrying ability of having extra water in the system.

Gallon of coolant should be about 13 bucks from the dealership, and its worth every penny to use the correct stuff

 

Yea, here's the 2003 from service, - says the same thing as the 2002 -

 

I just did a coolant exchange. This website has helped me in the past, so I thought I'd post this as an FYI to help others:

The cooling system holds ABOUT 5 gallons of coolant. I bought 9 gallons of distilled water and 3 gallons of concentrated coolant/antifreeze. I drained the coolant from the drain on the radiator into a large wide container. While it finished draining, I removed the thermostat and then reinstalled the thermostat housing and everything else removed so I could run the engine.

I measured the coolant that drained out and got exactly 9 quarts (2 gal + 1 qt) out.

I closed the drain and refilled the system with distilled water through the radiator reservoir. I turned the heater on high and ran the engine at 3,000 rpm for a few minutes to circulate, revving and varying the rpm occasionally. I then drained it all out again. I repeated this process four times, using up all 9 gallons of distilled water. This process flushes out any small debris and helps remove much of the old coolant, leaving the drained engine with mostly distilled water in it.

After re-installing the thermostat (putting the bleed hole in the thermostat flange toward the front of the engine), I refilled the system with concentrated coolant antifreeze. It took about 9 quarts (2 gal + 1 quart). This leaves the system with about a 50/50 mix of antifreeze coolant and distilled water.

There are other ways for flushing, but my truck has been well maintained and the cooling system is in good shape. The manual says to remove one of the heater hoses if you need to bleed air from the system, but I didn't find that necessary. The small bleed hole in the thermostat allows air to pass through. I let the engine run for a while with the front of the truck pointing up hill.and then went for a test drive with the heater on. All was good.

I'll check the coolant level over the next few days and top off as necessary with concentrated coolant.

If you need a higher concentration of antifreeze, you could perform an additional drain and re-fill with concentrated antifreeze.

Hope this helps.

 

^
This is pretty much what I do for everything that has liquid refrigerant (coolant) systems.

 

Just gotta be gentle with the plastic drain stopper on the bottom of the radiator. 15-20 year aged plastic that has been through thousands of heat cycles can get kinda brittle